Sandip Dholakia

Now a days, besides blood, urine, saliva & hair is being recognized as an alternative & fundamental biological specimen for drug testing in the field of forensic analysis & clinical chemistry. Hair testing was used in legal cases, historical researches. This review on methodologically & practically used to the application of hair as a biological indication of drug use & abuse. The mechanism of drug incorporation into the hair were commented. This article include sample (hair) collection, preparation & extraction methods as well as the advanced analytical techniques such as immunoassay, HPLC-CE, GC-LC & GC-MS/MS. The outcome of hair analysis had been review for this categories: drugs of abuse(Opiates, Cocaines. Amphetamine, Cannabinoids) & Benzodizapines, prescribed drugs etc. finally the specific purpose of hair testing was discussed along with their interpretation.

As per ICH guideline impurity may be defined as any component of drug product that is not the drug substance or an excipient. Now a day apart from purity profile there are an increasing essentiality of impurity profile by regulatory agency. Different regulatory agencies like ICH,USFDA, TGA, etc. work on control and identification of impurities in pharmaceutical dosage forms. To identify and characterize impurities are essential for establishing the biological safety of an pharmaceutical dosage forms. The various pharmacopoeias like IP, BP, USP, etc. were allowed certain limits of impurities in pharmaceutical dosage forms. This review article mainly focuses on various methods available to identify and characterize impurities in pharmaceutical dosage forms. Among all, the most specific techniques are NMR, MASS, GC-MS, LC-MS, HPLC-DAD-MS, LC-MS-MS, HPLC-DAD-NMR-MASS, Capillary electrophoresis, Mass and Flash chromatography. Key words: Impurities, identification, HPLC-DAD-MS.